Story+1984-12-09+Murfreesboro,+TN

´´They closed....when they closed down this....autoplant, they thrown about 2,000 of us out of work....I remember, for the next six months....I spent....running around looking for a job....finally the bank said they were gonna foreclose on the mortgage .... and I went down there and it was the same bank that I put my first paycheck in.....ten years ago when I started.....and they said there was nothing they could do....well, you sit in this chair and you walk in these shoes for a while....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Johnny 99’**

´´Thanks....here´s a song about blind faith.....and its....tragic results.....´cause everybody´s waited for somebody who wasn´t ever coming back......”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Reason to Believe´**

´´Thanks, here´s uh.....this is a song about isolation, I guess.....seems like, uh.....all the technology that´s out there, they say it´s supposed to bring the world closer together.... there´s more people that feel kind of isolated from their families and from their jobs.... from their government than ever before....those are the things that keep you going in some fashion ....and when you lose ´em, anything can happen.....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Nebraska´**

´´I guess there´s all kinds of isolation, I....I remember I was...I was living on this farm when a friend of mine called me up....and told me that Elvis Presley had died...and it was hard, I remember at the time it was hard to understand....how somebody....who could´ve taken away so many people´s loneliness....and taken away so many people´s feeling of isolation could´ve ended up so...so lonely...you know, ´cause, uh....in the end, I think everybody that ever picked up a guitar....picked it up for....for some of the same reasons ....just looking for another friend out there....but a good thing and a good dream.....a dream that comes true can be a dangerous thing, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Johnny Bye Bye’ **

´´Well, now.....I got a lesson tonight in ancient history....do we have any history majors out there ? (cheers)....good.....now, I´m not talking about the kind of ancient history, about like Mesopotamians....or the Trojans....or the Italians....I´m talking about personal stuff....I mean the kind of stuff that, when I die, you´re gonna read all about in the National Enquirer....or if my girlfriend gets mad at me, you´re gonna read about it while I´m still alive....in one of them tell-all books....tonight I´m in a confessional mood....gotta get this off my shoulders.....when I was a child, I had but three interests.....my father was a poolplayer so I decided I´d learn how to play pool and get better than him.....and then the other one....was the guitar....and then the third thing I was interested in was....you know, that one....so like one Christmastime, my mother took me to Sears and for 69.95, she bought me this pooltable and like we tied it to the roof of the car and we drove it home and then like, you know, we lugged it up the stairs and got in through the frontdoor but my father wouldn´t let me have it downstairs so it just used to fit in my bedroom....but then I used to bring my girlfriends home and I´d say: ´Dad, we´re gonna go upstairs and play pool for a little while´....but you see like he used to sit in the kitchen and that was right underneath my bedroom so like if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around or if he didn´t hear the guitar strumming, he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling all the time....trying to interrupt my concentration.....my fore (chuckles)....anyway, I kind of got wise to him ´cause I used to like, I used to pull the pooltable like real over close to the bed and then like every once in a while I would like lean up and knock the poolballs around little bit....but anyway, then I matured, I gave up pool....and of the other two, the guitar´s really the only one that I became very proficient at....but, but I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise (?)....I´m gonna get it down this year, I´m gonna get it perfect, perfect, just right ..... anyway....in the end ....all these things must pass....and it ain´t nothing but glory days....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Glory Days´**

´´Thanks.....and this is a song I wrote I guess about three or four years ago....I was living in California for a while and I was thinking about the town that I´d grown up in.....and uh, I guess everybody, everybody kind of ends up with a love-hate-relationship with the place that they were born and raised, I know I did....so when I was about 16, it was mostly hate, I think (chuckles) I couldn´t wait to get out of town and I used to go to New York all the time, get on the bus....you could breathe a little freer....but uh....I guess one of the things that I was afraid of at the time was I was kind of afraid of belonging to something ´cause when you admit that you belong to something that means there´s some responsobility there....and uh, it doesn´t matter whether it´s your, your city or your state or your town or your country....there seems to be some.....everybody´s gotta shoulder some responsobility to the place that they live.....and uh, tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks from the Second Harvest Foodbank....and what a foodbank is is every year 20 percent of all the food that gets produced here in America just gets wasted and gets thrown away, nobody uses it, and what a foodbank does is they get a hold of that food and then they get it to the agencies that can distribute it amongst the people that need it....there´s a lot of people still out there suffering hard times, who the trickle-down theory of economics hasn´t trickled down to.... and uh.....you know, I thought the idea in this country was that everybody, everybody got a chance, everybody deserved an even break and so....so those folks are gonna be out there tonight and they can use your support, they feed a lot of people every year, they help people get their lives back on track, it´s just a neighbor-to-neighbor thing, it´s just.....so they´re out there trying to make this place a better place to live and in the end this is your hometown so do something.....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘My Hometown´**

´´Alright, take it easy now, band....well, now, this is a song.....about the conflict ..... between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy.... now, where did this conflict begin ?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....well, now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike.....that´s why they call it the Garden State.....now, understand, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you didn´t have a little bed you could crawl into at night, you couldn´t go home and put the little Pop-Tarts in the toaster and then jump in the sack and watch Johnny Carson.....you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no Sir !....in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin....there was no sex..... man lived in a state of innocence....well, now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in ....but before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries, why my body pulls me one way and why soul pulls me another and so I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that spot is now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, with a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’....but then I said ´Dan, that´s really not the reason I came, you see I want, I wanna know the answer to some of these, some of these mysteries, why, why I feel so tempted all the time´ and he said ´Well, son, that´s easy, but listen closely because right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve and she looked so fine ....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, well, Son, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then they lay down in the green field..... and, Son, when Adam....well, let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in that Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them running right down into the darkness....but tonight, right here on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got their getaway car....if you think you can take it, I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac...´´
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Pink Cadillac´**

´´I remember that when I first met her, it was off this little strip down by the river....and you know how it is when you first meet somebody, like, you´re going out and laughing all the time....everything you do is fun....she always used to like to go out riding....and then, uh.... something happened, things that made her happy all of a sudden didn´t make her happy any more.....I don´t know if it was just time or if we got bored with each other.... and I was spending all my time trying to find out some way, some way I could make her happy again.... and she got to where she didn´t wanna go out, staying in all the time, she´d hide my keys so I couldn´t take the car out....and.....sometimes I guess that people.... maybe they expect too much of each other or something but it got hard to make her understand that when I took the car out and when I won, that it was the only time....that I felt good about myself....and that to have just one thing.....just one thing in your whole life ....that you feel proud of, that makes you feel proud of yourself....that´s not too much for anybody to ask.....is it ?..... (....) Well, that was the night that we left....we still don´t know where we´re going yet.... but I guess that´ll come in time....but sometimes it seemed like time....gets running so short on you ....it just feels like it´s running out on you.....and I guess there´s not much you can do but keep going....and keep searching.....to keep going, keep going....keep on going.....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Racing in the Street´**

´´Thank you, I´d like to take just a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much.....you folks from Nashville, Murfreesboro.....and uh, I know some of you guys like wait out in line for tickets for a long time, I want you to know that we appreciate it (cheers) I know you´re out there (chuckles)....thank you....this is uh, I´d also like to thank you for your support of the Second Harvest Foodbank.... there´s people out there that, that could just use some help and in the end we´re all in this, whether we like it or not, in one boat....and the power of rock and roll....has always been the power of friendship and the power of community....and in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins.....”
 * 09.12.84 Murfreesboro, TN, intro to ‘Born to Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//